Underground water level in Punjab plains lowering

The underground water level in Punjab plains has not only been reduced, but also soft water is getting sour and turning hard gradually. Sources in the Punjab agriculture department told Business Recorder that hundreds and thousands of tube-wells were installed in the province without laboratory test of underground water.
The canal water has not been amply available for irrigating farm lands and shortage was met with other means of drawing underground natural water to surface, the sources said.
Sources said about 800,000 tube-wells have been in operation in the province for several decades for irrigation purpose. These tube-wells were installed without laboratory test of water. This is why underground water level has lowered considerably and underground natural resources of soft water are getting sour and hard.
The agriculture engineering wing has, however, made great progress in the meantime. Engineers can now search out underground water up to depth of 600 feet and determine its quality as well, the sources said, adding the agriculture department now provides consultancy to growers and help them by providing power-driven rigging machines, heavy machinery like bulldozers and tube-well equipment at low costs.
Sources said that a plan is also underway to attain self-sufficiency in food by the year 2015 and achieve this goal; agriculture department is providing bulldozers to level barren lands, help select tube-well sites and also provide drilling machines for digging out water on concessional rates.
According to sources, the agriculture department is also working on mechanisation of agriculture. It also helps in removing silt from canals, fish farms, and ponds.
The agriculture department is also planning to construct water reservoirs and store rainwater in arid zones besides small dams. It is streamlining drainage system and increasing forest wealth. Small forests are being developed to check erosion of soil. The department is also reclaiming lands damaged by salinity, the sources said.
'Population is growing fast and growers wish something practical to be done. Red-tape mars all good schemes and original growers remain deprived generally. Procedures should be simplified', the sources said.